UConn versus Pitt in the Big East Tournament Championship. The rubber match on neutral court. Both sides held serve this year. They have split the BET the past two years — UConn in 2002, Pitt in 2003. The game everyone wanted. Add your own cliches here.

This matters. Ask Calhoun.

I get very, very upset when people say, “It’s a meaningless tournament.” It’s not meaningless to me. I know it’s not meaningless to Taliek Brown to come here to Madison square Garden. I know it’s not meaningless for Ben, it’s not meaningless to Josh, for any of us to go against the guys who are our neighbors, the guys that we battle against sometimes for, in Taliek’s case, four years.
…
But it is special to me. It always has been. Just like the regular season, people said, “Well, it’s not really important whether you win that game.” It was important to us. Wasn’t important of hurting Emeka, and we didn’t, but it was very important to me. Winning the BIG EAST is very important to me. Winning the National Championship is more important, certainly. But this is important to our basketball team, to our program. We want to be as good a program as there is in this league.

Tomorrow night we’ll have another chance to prove it against a team that’s been the best team this year and won the regular season title.

What he said.

I am so grateful the Big East puts the transcripts up from the postgame. Here’s an example of creative usage:

Q. For Ben and Taliek, this is the third straight year Connecticut and Pittsburgh meet for this championship. That’s never happened in 25 years of BIG EAST play. Can you talk about the rivalry or sense you get that’s developing between these two programs?
TALIEK BROWN: I think it’s a big rivalry between us two. I think our team, we, like, really hate them, you know (laughing).

That’s all we do when we play them, they play real tough, they play the way we play, they like to run, they just play real physical. It’s like a battle when we get out there. We just feel like this is the real championship. They beat us once, we beat them once. For me, this is my senior year so this where I end it, right here, so we’ll have to get a win.

Taliek Brown, clearly wants to win and sees it as a rivalry, but is having fun. Laughing when he says UConn hates Pitt. So how do the sportswriters use what he said? From Hartford

The schools will play for the Big East tournament title for the third year in a row and the plots just keep getting juicier. We have seen Brandin Knight play until he dropped in noble defeat. We have seen Pitt, rugged, immovable, rebound last season. And now we will see if UConn, magically transformed almost overnight from overrated powerhouse to determined underdog, can produce a most inspirational Big East tournament championship. And, oh baby, get this: After the Huskies beat Villanova 84-67 Friday night, Taliek Brown said his team hates Pitt.

Yep, hates. He set the UConn single season and career record for assists Friday night and he was clearly tired of dishing out the candy. Taliek wanted to dish some dirt.

Hate. Oh, boy.

That’s the story line.

Or…

“Our team, we really hate them, you know,” Brown said. “We feel like this is the real championship because they beat us once and we beat them once and for me this is my senior year, so I have to end it right here.”

The championship game not only concludes the season long trilogy between these teams but also an epic that has spanned three years.

Okay, how about New Jersey?

“We hate them,” UConn point guard Taliek Brown said of the Panthers. “This is how it should be.”

Nice. What does the AP have to say?

The Huskies and Panthers will play in the title game Saturday night for the third straight year and each won one of the first two.

“It’s a big rivalry. We really hate those guys. That’s all we do is play each other,” Connecticut guard Taliek Brown said after the second-seeded and ninth-ranked Huskies beat Villanova 84-67 Friday night in the semifinals.

Give the NY Times credit. They don’t have the quote in their game wrap-ups.
The Pittsburgh dailies don’t have the quote, but they appeared not to have waited for the Villanova-UConn game to file their reports. Dollars to donuts that it ends up in the papers after the game tonight.

The Connecticut papers also reported that Villanueva will be playing, and Okafor is likely. I believe the former, but doubt that Calhoun would risk the latter — no matter how much he wants this game.

While Jaron Brown’s status is officially questionable for the game, I think he’ll be playing.

Pitt will have to stop Ben Gordon and Taliek Brown on the perimeter. Pitt will win or lose this game on how well their defense holds UConn’s guards in check. Josh Boone will get points inside no matter what, he has been great against Pitt. Troutman and Taft will keep it reasonable, and I think Okafor and/or Villanueva won’t be able to be that agressive.

The guards will be the difference. Krauser will have to keep his emotions and that forearm shove to get separation in check somewhat tonight. You know he is going to want it in the Garden. Page can go 0-7 shooting, but if he can hold Gordon to under 15, I like Pitt’s chances.

Had things to do with the family today, so I will not be doing my game notes. Instead, just a review of the game.

The BC-Pitt game was not easy, but no one should have expected it to be. BC has been one of the hottest teams in the Big East, and they have the bodies inside to bang with Pitt. The difference, though, is that Pitt has guards that can hit a shot. BC’s starting guards had 4 points in the game. By comparison, Pitt’s guards had 22 points. BC’s forwards and center provided 35 points, but Pitt got 29 from theirs. Not enough to make up the difference.

The first half was ugly. Not the kind of ugly Pitt wins, but the kind they lose. Nothing falling. Confusion on the offense. Settling for too many jumpers rather than getting the ball inside. Both teams shot around 30%. BC got its lead because Pitt fouled them on shots, and BC was brilliant at the line. They went 12-12 in the first half. Pitt was 5-8. Pitt stayed in the game and won because of their defense. They got 11 steals in the game and forced 15 turnovers from BC.

The second half was different. Both teams shot better, but Pitt solved their 2-3 zone and got inside more for easier shots. This forced them back to man-to-man. Pitt shot 15-28 in the second half. Part of how they solved the zone was by Krauser and Brown taking the ball and slashing to the hoop more. Brown especially caught them off guard. The second half was classic Pitt. They never completely pulled away, they just grinded BC down as the game continued.

BC should be glad they have one more year in the Big East with this team. They are not built for ACC play, they are a big inside team that should do very well next year in the Big East.

Individual Evaluations
Chevon Troutman: ESPN sideline analyst, Len Elmore, raved about his game before and during the game. Troutman didn’t disappoint. Despite the foul trouble that limited him to “only” 33 minutes, Troutman’s defense on BC’s Craig Smith was huge. Smith abused anyone else who had to guard him (see, McCarroll). Troutman got 6 steals, a block and 6 rebounds to go with his 8 points (4-7).

Chris Taft: A little too eager to try for the tip-ins in the first half, he got smarter in the second half pulling the ball down before trying to put it in. 10 points and 8 rebounds in 29 minutes. A very typical game for Taft.

Jaron Brown: The stat sheet doesn’t do him justice. He had 11 points and 9 rebounds, but like his 2 steals, they always seemed to come just at the right time. He turned his ankle midway through the second half grabbing a rebound, but didn’t go down until he was able to pass the ball to someone. Got it re-taped and came back into the game after only a couple minutes. Even with the sore ankle, he made a key steal at about 7:47 and took it down for the lay-up himself to get Pitt’s lead back to 5. He kept BC’s star freshman Jared Dudley in check all night.

Carl Krauser: He is, without a doubt, the key on Pitt’s offense. He got 18 points, even though he didn’t shoot well, 5 assists and 2 steals. He is constantly in motion. Played the entire 40 minutes, and I expect the same tonight.

Julius Page: Watching Page go from a slasher and athletic nightmare on offense to a poor jump shooter has sucked. I hate to say this, but Dixon should have sat him more and played McCarroll or Graves in his place for this game. Page is a great defender, but it wasn’t necessary given BC doesn’t have good perimeter players. Considering how well he shot against VT when he had some rest, it seems that he should have gotten a little extra break last night. Page’s shots didn’t go down early or much. He had only 4 points on 2-6. One of the buckets came when he actually chose to take the ball to the basket. It surprised everyone.

Mark McCarroll: Pitt’s not-yet-ready-for-prime-time player. He has the skills on offense, but his defense will keep him on the bench. When he went in for Troutman, he was abused by Smith. In the first half, Smith got 4 straight baskets as McCarroll was helpless — though maybe Page should have been asked to help double him up some more. On offense, he still has a little trouble handling the pass inside.

Torree Morris: The big man had 6 points (3-3) in only 3 minutes of action. He provided a spark on offense, by not missing under the basket.

Tonight against UConn in the Championship.

They get no breaks. They finally seem to be coming together. Pulling off the big win against the now downward spiraling Friars, and it was a 9pm game meaning limited attention from the dailies. Plus, St. Joe’s the Philly darling all year long, actually gets blown out the same day stealing even more attention from their big wins.

I was fairly satisfied with Pitt’s performance in their first game. It wasn’t perfect, but I expected a little bit of nerves, rust and a slow start. The New York Times saw Pitt never truly threatened. I would hardly call it a “struggle.” The local media and players, though, seemed more upset.

The unanimous sentiment of the players was that if they put forth a similar effort tonight, they won’t get the chance to raise the trophy again.

“It has to start [today],” freshman forward Chris Taft said. “We can’t do that [today]. From now on, we’re going to try not to do that.”

Pitt was outrebounded by a Virginia Tech team (34-32) that was second-to-last in rebounding in the conference this season and slumped from the free-throw line, missing 15 of its 38 attempts, including 11 in the second half that helped keep the Hokies in the game.

The Panthers also had mental lapses on defense. Late in the second half, Virginia Tech scored on nine of 10 possessions and trimmed a 15-point deficit to six points with 2:26 remaining.

“We got up by 10 or 12, and I thought we backed off a little bit,” junior forward Chevon Troutman said. “You can’t make your teammates play hard all the time. Sometimes they take breaks and don’t even know it. We did that and it came back to bite us in the butt.”

“It’s frustrating because we were out there hurting ourselves,” sophomore point guard Carl Krauser said.

I was willing to attribute some of the rebounding and defensive problems to Pitt making a conscious effort to go inside on offense more, which meant less of a chance to get position for rebounds and get back on defense. But if the players are annoyed, good. They need to get amped to play BC, not revenge against Syracuse like some hoped. Instead, it will be BC looking for revenge.

“We’re anxious to see everybody we’ve played and lost to,” forward Craig Smith said after the sizzling Eagles failed to make a single shot outside of 10 feet but came from behind to beat No. 19 Syracuse, 57-54, yesterday in the quarterfinals. “Obviously, revenge is on our minds.”

Taft was poked in the eye in the second half while going for a rebound. He should be okay.

Julius Page was apparently annoyed by being asked about his shooting again. Mike Pirusta has a good answer for why the question keeps getting asked.

It wasn’t the last time Page was asked about his shot, his confidence and his overall comfort level as Pitt’s season careens into its most critical juncture.

“It’s making me sick, to tell you the truth,” Page said. “We keep winning games and everybody keeps talking about me missing shots. Who cares? I would like it if they just leave me alone, let us play.

“If we lose and I shoot bad, then say something about it. But as long as we keep winning, there’s no need to even address it. It’s a team game. As long as we win, who cares if I shoot 0 for 20? As long as we win, I don’t care.”
…
The media cares because it’s under the impression that Pitt, at some point, will need more from Page than it’s been getting of late if the Panthers are to advance to the Final Four. [emphasis added]

March may be about winning more than anything (St. Joseph’s would have loved to answer questions about poor shooting following another victory rather than an ambush yesterday), but it’s also about projecting what must change for the next game.

Dead on. No dancing around it. That’s why the question has to be asked.

When Pitt lost to Syracuse a couple weeks ago I ranted about how Pitt failed to go at Hakim Warrick more when he was in foul trouble in both halves. You have to wonder if a few people in Syracuse might be wondering the same thing about BC’s Uka Agbai near the end of the game.

Uka Agbai picked up his fourth foul with 4:35 left in yesterday’s game and told his coach not to take him out.

“I told (BC coach Al Skinner) to leave me in the game, don’t worry about it,” Agbai said after the Eagles’ 57-54 win against No. 19 Syracuse.

Agbai never fouled out and, twice in the final minute, forced Hakim Warrick to go left because “he can only go to his right.” The two stands helped secure BC’s second upset of a ranked team in less than a week.

On BC-Syracuse, as the NY Times said, “Syracuse began with more fans at Madison Square Garden yesterday afternoon, but Boston College finished with more points.”
BC is now officially the “hottest” team in the Big East. Pitt will need a very good game to win this one.

A big match-up will be inside between Agbai and Troutman. Dueling puff pieces from yesterday and today. Agbai by Bob Ryan, and Troutman by Ron Cook.

Finally, because I can’t resist, here’s Orangenation’s recap of the game. One of those, the refs were inconsistent in one-sided against us, but it wasn’t really their fault Syracuse lost things.

I have to miss the UConn-ND game so the wife can get some TV time, and I get the computer. I am more curious about the Villanova-Providence game, anyways.

VT-Pitt: I came away from this game very, very impressed with Virginia Tech. Pitt had more talent and stronger personnel, but VT never gave up. They kept making runs at Pitt. They shot nearly 45% for the game, despite their best player, Matthews limited to only 30 minutes because of foul problems and fouling out with nearly 7 minutes left in the game. Their second best player, Gordon, shot better than 50% for 14 points, 6 assists and 7 rebounds despite his own foul troubles and a bum ankle. I’m actually going to wish the basketball team well in the ACC.

Offensively, Pitt looked pretty good. They shot better than 50% from the field. Page had a solid game. You could see some real spring in his jump. Maybe he was being honest, when he said he was just tired (Though if that’s so, maybe Dixon should not have let him play 37 minutes when there’s another game tomorrow?). Troutman and Krauser both had their typically solid games. Jaron Brown was the scoring leader with 20 points (including an impressive 7-9 from the free throw line). Taft looked great everywhere except at the free throw line where he was an abysmal 0-6. Take out his Free throws and Pitt was about 72% from the line. Pitt definitely looked more for the inside baskets, to take pressure off of Page, Krauser and Brown. The only red flag was that Pitt was outrebounded by VT 34-32. VT had been outrebounded the previous day by Rutgers 39-23. Pitt wasn’t just slower to the ball, it seemed that Troutman and Taft were having trouble getting positioned properly on the offensive end because they were trying to score more.

Post game quotes from both sides. VT Coach Seth Greenberg was highly complimentary to Jaron Brown. Pitt Coach Jamie Dixon refused to take credit for Pitt’s big run to start the second half.

BC-Syracuse: As I said, “This should be a great game. I give the edge to Syracuse, but a BC win wouldn’t be a shock.” I hedged, but stuck with the favorite. Some were a little cockier.

he post season is finally here, and Syracuse’s defense of the 2003 NCAA National Championship now begins in earnest. Step one is getting past the surging Boston College Eagles and advancing in the Big East Tournament. Look for the poise and savvy of the more experienced Orangemen to win out over the youthful enthusiasm of the Eagles today, and for Syracuse to send BC off to the ACC once and for all with their tail feathers tucked between their legs.

Factual error: BC still has one more year in the Big East before slinking away from the Big East. Other errors were on the slight exuberance of fans.

Early in the game, it looked like BC would have no chance against Syracuse. Syracuse was hot at both ends. They were pushing the ball, passing, in total control. The defense had BC flustered and confused. At halftime, Syracues had a 32-23 lead. Many could be excused for thinking it would only get worse in the second half.

A funny thing happened. Syracuse only scored 22 points in the second half. Unfortunately, right now I can’t find a box score that shows the splits from first to second half. The Official one from BC is wrong. There are no first half numbers, and the second half numbers are the totals. For the game, BC was held to just over 35% shooting, and 0-9 from 3-point range. I’m pretty sure though that there is a skew. The big thing for BC was that they got to the free throw line, and made their shots. They went 17-24 at the line. ‘Cuse only got there 13 times and made 8. Of course, Syracuse shot almost 44% for the game and 4-10 from 3-point. BC also out rebounded Syracuse 32-25, which was a surprise.

In the post-game interviews, BC head coach Al Skinner refused to say anything about Pitt. Referring back to my post a couple days ago with Smizik and the Big East Tourney not mattering, let’s read how Syracuse coach Boeheim addresses that sort of stupidity

Q. Tough to lose the game, but do you like the rest, to have some rest to get ready for the NCAAs at all?

COACH JIM BOEHEIM: Stupid question. Next question.

Yeah, I like to lose. Yeah, I like to lose. Next question.

You haven’t asked a question… Go back to Syracuse, will you, please.

Somehow the transcript doesn’t capture his feelings completely.

Finally, I note that UConn beat ND 66-58.

The First Round of the BET was actually more exciting than I expected, with only Georgetown-BC not even being as close as the score indicated. My original picks can be found here.

Rutgers-VT: I watched this game very closely because the winner would face Pitt today. First time I actually saw either team all year. The play confirmed what I expected. VT has been a team that has played better as the season went on, and Rutgers just lacked something the longer VT hung around. VT showed that they can play a solid game, though their shooting was streaky. Not good in the first half, and not missing in the second. Matthews of VT had a bad game, but Rutgers just choked it away during the second half.

WVU-ND: I admit, I stopped paying attention to this game after about 10 minutes. So I missed the comeback and last minute excitement. This game explains why I didn’t think ND could beat UConn in the second round.

Villanova-Seton Hall: The big upset. Villanova finally pulls one out after failing to hold on. ‘Nova played the way it has in its last half-dozen games. Big early runs, looking like the upset is possible, but then not taking care of the ball and choking in the second half. This time they got the big run early, but Seton Hall got back in to the game before the half to only be down 2. I figured the second half would be all Hall. Not this time. Villanova did give up the lead, but did not collapse. They stayed in the game and in the last minute appeared to blow it on an inbounds play when Nardi banged knees and fell down as the ball skittered past him. Then Toney-El missed two free throws for Seton Hall, the last being a choked air ball. Wow. Great finish.

I spent most of the day watching a lot of the Big East Tournament, and just didn’t have the energy or time to post then. I’ll try to get to some impressions and also second round action tonight.

In San Antonio, a columnist there looks at Pitt as a source of inspiration for Texas A&M in basketball.

Five years ago, the Panthers entered the Big East tournament with a lame-duck coach and one of the most miserable programs in the league.

Today, they return to Madison Square Garden not only with the conference’s coach of the year, but also with a team good enough to make the Final Four.

Somewhere, Bill Byrne might be able to take some comfort in that.

Byrne, Texas A&M’s athletic director, is no doubt too preoccupied these days to worry about what’s happening a half-continent away. But this weekend, he’d be wise to take a quick glance at Pittsburgh’s Jamie Dixon — if not at the man, then at the message:

It can be done.

Granted, the Panthers never went 0-16 in conference play, and they never had to battle the kind of basketball apathy that has plagued College Station for much of the past two decades.

In Syracuse, they handicapped the field yesterday, and declared Pitt the favorite. They also anticipate a wild battle between Pitt and Syracuse in the semis — of course they expected that the Seton Hall vs. Providence match-up today would be the best and that didn’t happen (didn’t you also think that? Shut up!).

In the locals, the P-G wonders about the guard play of Pitt. Specifically, will it get out of its collective slump? Does Pitt change and look for the inside scoring with Troutman and Taft first? Good questions. Unfortunately, we don’t have an answer. There’s also a puff piece on Krauser back in NYC. The best story in the P-G today, is the one on Joe Lunardi, ESPN’s bracket expert.

The Trib focuses on the Hokies winning and basically playing with house money going into the game that is now only a few minutes away. Also a rumination piece about whether Dixon will get a new contract after the season is over (probably).

Everyone writes up the Big East Awards. The P-G story also notes that Coach Dixon’s contract might be reworked after this season — it’s a middle of the Big East pack contract. The Trib write-up discloses that the Panthers were late to the awards banquet.

The Pitt contingent arrived unfashionably tardy — Krauser even arrived after his name had been called — due to traffic, according to Dixon. The event began 45 minutes later than scheduled.

“We knew we were going to be cutting it close,” Dixon said, explaining that things got tight after an afternoon practice in the Bronx, a return trip to the team hotel and traffic delays en route to the hotel at Grand Central Station.

This taking place in NYC, the papers there have coverage. Lots of NYC media love for Pitt. The NY Post is perfunctory (” PITT GRABS FOUR AWARDS”)(I guess Lenn Robbins needed to get to bed early for his gig as “college basketball expert” at ESPN2’s “Cold Pizza” morning show). NY Newsday has a simple write-up (“Pitt piles on hardware”).

The New York media also discovers Coach Jamie Dixon. A big write-up in the NY Times, but nothing that new if you have been following the team all year. The NY Daily News’ columnist, Dick Weiss does his column about Dixon (It’s also been picked up in the Miami Herald and other papers ). There’s a lot of Ben Howland quotes about his protege.

The Daily News and Newsday have previews of the BET. Newsday only looks at todays games. Essentially mirrors my picks, except that he seems to waffle on the VT/Rutgers game. The Daily News predicts the entire BET and like me, picks Pitt. In fact, except for the VT/Rutgers game (is this some NY/NJ media bias?) his picks are the same as mine. The Tribune-Review‘s quickie preview is also similar to my evaluation. Geez, with everyone reaching the same conclusion, maybe I need to rethink this.

For readers of PSB in the Pittsburgh area, maybe you can comment on this AP story about the City of Pittsburgh “rallying around winning Panthers.” It even has “colorful locals” for quotes.

In a season when avid Pittsburgh sports fans wince at being ranked among the worst cities for major American sports, the community has found its saving grace in the oft-overshadowed Pitt Panthers men’s basketball team.
…
The Penguins have become the NHL’s worst team this season with a 15-44-6-4 record as of Sunday, and attendance has plummeted. The Pirates finished fourth in the NL Central last year, a club-record 11th consecutive losing season. And the Steelers completed a 6-10 season – tying for their second-worst record in 34 years.

It’s a long fall from the Steel City’s glory days in the 1970s. In 1979, the Steelers won the Super Bowl, the Pirates won the World Series and the Penguins advanced two rounds into the playoffs.

Now, many Pittsburgh fans are just anxious to see any of the city’s teams succeed.

Sitting at the Hi-Tops sports bar facing the ballpark and football stadium, Chris Beaver, 24, of Pittsburgh, and Randy Wolfe, 25, of Oakdale, said they preferred the Steelers and freestyle motocross over college basketball.

But they’ll take the Panthers’ success over nothing.

Wheee.

Finally, a word about a particularly inane Smizik column. A week ago Smizik declared that Pitt “might” be better as a #2 NCAA Tourney Seed than #1 (after declaring that seeding doesn’t really matter this year). Then a few days later he wrote that the Big East regular season title was irrelevant. Now, it’s the BET that’s unimportant.

The Panthers are ready to conclusively prove — after already having won the regular-season championship — they’re the best team in the conference.

And maybe that’s not so good.

In athletic competition it’s always best to keep your eye on the ring. But the Panthers are looking at two rings — the Big East tournament and the NCAA tournament — although one is clearly more important than the other. The Big East tournament is a big deal in the eyes of most, but it’s not nearly the biggest deal. It precedes by less than a week the NCAA tournament, which is the most important event in college basketball.
…
In the best of possible worlds, Pitt would win the Big East and the NCAA tournaments. But too much emphasis on the former could affect their chances in the latter.

If Pitt wants to have its best chance to win the NCAA tournament, it should understand winning the Big East is important, but its secondary in terms of measuring the success of the season.

I think it’s self-evident that the NCAA is bigger and more important than the BET. So what? To go completely cliche, you have to take the games one at a time. Right now, Pitt is playing in the BET. You don’t take it off, and rest for games that are 4-5 days away (from the end of the BET). Injuries can happen. Pitt had some early problems, but weren’t beset by them. You can’t avoid injuries. Pitt plays a hard tough game. They can’t just throttle back, to prevent injury. Smizik seems to be casting about for something “controversial” to say without being negative (yet). Let’s predict his storylines post NCAA if Pitt wins the BET or loses the BET.

Wins BET, Elite Eight or better — These columns never existed. Clearly a successful season after all the turmoil for Pitt basketball and the Big East in the last year.

Wins BET loses in Sweet Sixteen — Told you so. Maybe Pitt would have won if they had gotten a little more rest, for a game that took place in 2 weeks later.

Loses BET, Elite Eight or better — Told you so. The BET was irrelevant. All that mattered was the NCAA, and perhaps not having to play as much in the BET helped.

Loses BET, loses in Sweet Sixteen — Disappointing end to the season. Columns about seeding and how unimportant the BET was never happened.

The Big East announced it’s indvidual awards. Emeka Okafor of UConn won Big East Player and Defensive Player of the year honors. No shock there. In fact the awards were pretty much as expected, with Pitt winning the rest. Coach Jamie Dixon won Coach of the Year; Chris Taft — Rookie of the Year; Carl Krauser — Most Improved Player; and Jaron Brown — Sportsmanship Award.

Dixon is in his first year as head coach of the Panthers. For the previous four seasons, he was the team’s associate head coach under Ben Howland. Dixon guided the 2003-04 team to a 27-3 overall record and the program’s third straight 13-3 BIG EAST mark. The Panthers are the regular season league champions and the top seed in The BIG EAST Championship. Dixon’s selection marks the first time in conference history that the Coach of the Year award was won by someone who is in his first year as a head coach.

Taft, a 6-10 native of Coney Island, N.Y., became an immediate force in the paint for the Panthers. The freshman averaged 11.4 points and a team-leading 7.7 rebounds. He shot 57.1 percent from the field. Taft was named BIG EAST Rookie of the Week six times.

Krauser, a 6-2 sophomore guard, moved into the starting lineup this season after backing up standout Brandin Knight. Krauser averaged 6.0 points and 2.9 assists last year. This season, the native of the Bronx, N.Y. is first on the team with a 15.3 scoring average and a 4.8 assist mark while directing the Panthers to their regular season crown.

Brown has been a part of the most successful Panther tenure in BIG EAST history. In his four seasons, Pittsburgh has compiled a 103-28 record. On the court, Brown averaged 11.9 points and 5.5 rebounds. Off the court, he has been nominated for several campus honors involving academic and athletic excellence, including the Senior of Distinction Award.

Cool.

The Big East Tournament (BET) has been going on since 1980. Starting in 1983, coincidentally the first year they started playing at Madison Square Garden, there would be at least one play-in game to add a 4th day of games. No team in the BET has won when having to play 4 games in 4 days. Only twice has a team even made it to the Championship game when playing on the first day. UConn in 2000, before falling to St. John’s; and Pitt in 2001, only to have nothing left in the tank against Boston College.

Looking at the bracket this year, there is the potential for two teams to make it to the championship game, but I believe only one has the potential to actually win it. Seton Hall has the potential to make it to the final game. It would have to beat a feisty, but sloppy and mentally soft Villanova team on Wednesday. The next opponent would be #3 seed, Providence. Providence has lost 2 straight — badly. Their confidence is shaky, and the Hall has the kind of team that can beat them. After that, it would be a semi-final match against UConn or even Notre Dame. If Okafor is out, or just being “rested,” Seton Hall has the potential to win that game with its shooters. In the championship game, though, the likely opponent would be Syracuse or Pitt. Both are very physical, and that extra game would catch up with them at this point. I don’t think they could win that 4th game.

The other team would be Boston College. BC appears to be peaking at the right time. It should have not problem with a bad Georgetown team that backed into the #12 seed. The next 2 games would be the toughest. They would play Syracuse (probably the “hottest” team in the Big East at the moment) and then (most likely) Pitt. Those would be two physically gruelling games, and there would be real questions of how much they would have left in their tanks to take on (presumably) Providence or UConn. BC beat Providence this past weekend, and UConn probably wouldn’t be willing to risk Okafor much in that game. BC would have a chance.

First Round
I think you have to go with the higher seeds in all of the first round games. BC should have no problem with Georgetown. Notre Dame is scrambling to get into the NCAA, and WVU just isn’t that good off its home court.

Seton Hall could have trouble with Villanova, and it will probably be a tough game, but Villanova hasn’t shown any ability to close the deal in a close game against a good opponent. Plus ‘Nova is now 0-8 on national TV this year.

Virginia Tech has been improving all season, while Rutgers has blown chances to even get on the NCAA bubble in the last 2 weeks. VT will have the best player on the court in senior guard, first team all-Big East, Bryant Matthews.

Second Round
Call it bias, but would anyone really pick against Pitt against VT or Rutgers? You could conceivably construct the scenario, with Krauser, Taft, and McCarroll all local products distracted by the hometown attention; but I doubt it.

Syracuse versus BC. Think ESPN would love to shift this one from 2pm to 7 or 9pm? The 2 hottest teams by the end of the regular season. This should be a great game. I give the edge to Syracuse, but a BC win wouldn’t be a shock.

Notre Dame against UConn. I’m working from the assumption that Okafor will play sparingly if at all. UConn is a #2 seed in the NCAA no matter what, so you don’t risk Okafor. UConn lost to ND in South Bend the last time they played. Even without Okafor, I like a Jim Calhoun coached team in the BET. ND will make it tough, knowing that a win against UConn may push them into the NCAA; but I don’t think ND is tough enough to win that second game in a row without Francis.

Providence against Seton Hall. The way Providence has lost the final two games of the season has everyone wondering about this team. I wonder if the team has allowed itself to be distracted by the rumors that have surrounded coach Tim Welsh and possibly St. John’s taking a run at him. If so, it won’t help to be playing in NYC. I’m going to pick Seton Hall.

Third Round
Pitt in the rubber match against Syracuse. As good as Syracuse has been playing, and as bad as Pitt looked against them last game, this will be more like the first game in the Carrier Dome. Pitt will get the ball inside this time on offense, and Syracuse will again find limited shots on the perimeter. Pitt.

UConn and Seton Hall. Seton Hall could win if its shooters are on, but I think Seton Hall will be gassed by halftime of this game. I pick UConn.

Championship
For the 3rd straight year, Pitt versus UConn. I can’t imagine Calhoun letting Okafor anywhere near the court with Pitt. Pitt is just too physical for him to risk it. UConn is still very good on the inside, but I like Taft and Troutman over Boone and Villanueva. Unless Gordon and Brown start hoisting and hitting from the NBA 3-point line, I don’t see how Pitt’s defenders let them get many good shots.

In my, oh so biased, opinion. Pitt to repeat.

The 2004 All-Big East Team was released.

No surprise that no Pitt player didn’t make the first team. I can’t really quibble with the picks.

On second team, both Carl Krauser and Jaron Brown were named. Chris Taft was third team and a unanimous pick for the Big East All-Rookie team. Julius Page was given “honorable mention.” I would argue about leaving Chevy Troutman off even the third team, because his season has been overshadowed by Taft’s emergence.

It will probably be a slow couple days on the news front. The local papers only have a couple stories today. One looks at how Pitt exceeded all preseason expectations. The other piece is a bit of a puffer on Krauser going home to play at MSG.

From the Pitt website, the press release about going to the Big East Tournament as the #1 seed. It also reports that Chris Taft won Big East Rookie of the Week honors for the 2nd straight week and 6th time overall. There is no question that he will be Rookie of the Year.

The Big East Tournament Championship site is here. There’s information about bidding on “a special silver anniversary banner autographed by all 12 competing head coaches at the postseason event, plus members of the postseason All-BIG EAST teams.” The all-Big East Team is supposed to be announced later this morning.

Yes, the brackets haven’t even been announced yet and you can’t make picks. Still, beat the rush and sign up now for the NCAA Tournament challenge on ESPN. By doing the basic sign-up now (those who did our bowl challenge can use the same ID and info), you will avoid the crush on the servers once the brackets and seedings are announced next Sunday.

We have our own open group called “Pitt Sports Blather.” You can find it by typing “pitt” in the “search by name” box in the group directory. At last check, there were over 35 groups using Pitt or Pittsburgh in their group name.

Plenty of Pittsburgh coverage. Philadelphia is perfunctory.

In Philly, they had one reporter there. His report is short and dry. Other Philly papers relied on the Associated Press’ Pittsburgh sports writer Alan Robinson for the story.

At the Trib, the winning of the Big East regular season championship almost seemed secondary to this non-story.

…but the happiest moment might have occurred afterward, when freshman center Chris Taft promised that he will return for his sophomore year.
…
Taft amassed 16 points and 11 rebounds, went 7 of 10 from the field, and led a crucial eight-point run in the first half that ripped into a 14-point deficit. Three nights earlier, he scored 24 points on 10-of-11 shooting in a 27-point rout at Providence.

“I’ll be back for sure,” Taft said, quashing any rumors that he is considering a premature jump to the NBA. “My focus right now is on winning the Big East Tournament.”

Oh, please. If Pitt makes a Final Four run, and Taft performs like he did yesterday; the amount of exposure, attention and whispering in his ears will make it impossible and silly not to make the move. He’d get pushed into the first round. It just shouldn’t be a major discussion right now. There’s a chance and it is directly proportional to how far Pitt gets in the NCAA Tournament. Still the focus was on the job by Taft and Troutman inside.

The P-G game story was about Taft and Troutman and the Pitt defense.

Pitt held Villanova to 23 points after halftime and 28 percent shooting. The 45 points were the fewest the Wildcats scored this season.

Pitt has held six teams below 50 points this season and did it for the second time in three games.

“Defense is the easiest part of the game,” Page said. “It’s pride. If your offense affects your defense, you’re not a player. As long as you keep stopping teams from scoring, you’ll be in the game. Hopefully, your offense comes around, and that’s what happened today.”

The defense enabled the Panthers to win, despite shooting 35 percent (17 for 48) from the floor. That’s their second-lowest shooting percentage of the season, trumped only by the 31 percent effort in the 49-46 overtime loss to Syracuse a week ago.

Of course the offense of Pitt — or lack thereof for the second time in 3 games — is a concern.

While a lot of football coaches will tell you that defense wins championships, Pitt (27-3, 13-3) might need to hone its offense as the competition gets progressively stiffer through the conference and NCAA tournaments.
…
Although Pitt came back from its 17-3 hole — keyed by Taft’s eight consecutive points in the first half and four points at the start of a 16-0 run early in the second half — the icy start and close game until Pitt pulled away from a 37-37 tie at 8:27 of the second half spurred Taft to make a promise.

“We’ll try to never get down like that again, and we never will,” he said. “Come tournament time, people are going to be more aggressive and they’re going to be focusing more on your plays. If we get down like that, we’re going to get in trouble.”
…
In three of its past four games, Pitt has been held to 22 points or fewer in the first half. The Panthers scored 20 before halftime in a 68-58 win at Georgetown, and 22 in a 49-46 overtime loss at home to Syracuse. Overall, they have been held under 30 points in the first half 12 times.

While it isn’t fair to put all the blame on one person, Julius Page’s horrendous shooting is the most noticeable.

On the downside, Page’s shooting slump hit new lows in a 59-45 victory over Villanova. He shot 0 for 8 from the field, making him 16 for 54 (29.6 percent) in his past eight games.

Page finished the regular season with a career-low field goal percentage of 39.1 percent.
…
Nothing worked. Page missed two layups and five 3-point attempts. He did sink 5 of 6 free-throw attempts.

“I’m obviously in a slump,” Page said in a quiet moment later, as he walked with his 4-year-old son, Dredon. “I’m missing open shots that I usually make, but it’s not because of a lack of confidence, it’s because I’m not used to playing defense on a daily basis like I’ve been playing the past couple of games.”

Tired legs?

“Definitely,” he said. “On one pull-up shot, it felt like I was an inch off the ground.”

Everyone wants to help him. Former Pitt guards Curtis Aiken and Jason Matthews were speaking with him about his shooting at halftime.

Page keeps saying all the right things, but he is clearly bothered by both the slump and the attention.

In the columns, Ron Cook focuses on Taft’s impact (and a little on how it is good he isn’t going to turn pro for another year, sigh), and saving the day.

Two plays Taft made in the second half showed just how much he has improved. In each case, he beat his man, made a left-handed shot and drew a foul. The Pitt coaches loved it because he took his time, didn’t rush to make something happen and allowed traffic to clear around him. They also loved that he used his left hand. The scouting report on him earlier in the season was that he could only go to his right.

“Teams have been playing me that way all season,” Taft said. “They try to take away my right hand. I just say, ‘Thank you,’ when they do. That gives me the chance to show I can beat them with either hand.”

Taft deserves his success. He has worked countless hours on his inside game with the Pitt coaches, especially Orlando Antigua. He also has played close attention to Troutman, who is a master of sealing off defenders with his large behind. Troutman led Pitt with 17 points yesterday and is shooting 65.7 percent.

Mike Pirusta, however, wants to savor the Big East Regular Season Championship.

The celebration that followed was as heartfelt as it was well-deserved. Balloons descended from the rafters and popped like firecrackers upon reaching the crowd. Tears decorated the face of Julius Page. The Big East Conference championship trophy was hoisted at mid-court. The pep band blasted out the Pitt Fight Song and the NCAA Tournament theme that CBS has made so recognizable over the years. Toby Keith was once again heard warbling over the arena speakers (“How Do You Like Me Now?”).

Jamie Dixon addressed the fans as the best in the nation.

And Toree Morris fired his commemorative hat and T-shirt into the Oakland Zoo.

The symbolism of the moment was unmistakable, but Morris maintained he wasn’t trying to make any sort of statement about there being more work to do or about Pitt having bigger goals to capture.

This was special enough all on its own that the big center from Oliver Springs, Tenn., was simply overcome with emotion.

“I just did it to show my love for those guys,” Morris said. “I don’t know everybody, but I know the guys that started the Zoo when we were freshmen, when the year before that we weren’t the ‘Beast of the East.’

“I really do love those guys.”

The feeling was more than mutual on a day when Pitt basketball once again achieved, in a manner that takes the program to a previously unattained level of excellence.

Other Notes

The Trib beat reporter looks at the awards for the Big East, and sees Pitt dominating. He pencils Jamie Dixon in as Coach of the Year; Carl Krauser for Most Improved; Chris Taft is Rookie of the Year; Jaron Brown for Sportman of the Year. He lists Okafor of UConn for Player of the Year and Defensive Player, but he puts Page a close second for Defensive.

A good way to judge the interest in a program is to see how many papers pick up the AP stories on the team. This Alan Robinson piece on Pitt’s possibilities in the NCAA, for example appeared in the San Jose Mercury News, Chicago Tribune, Miami Herald, Seattle Post Intelligencer, LA Times, Atlanta Journal Constitution; and in papers in California, Georgia (a couple), South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Minnesota, Mississippi and even the Philly area.

Then there’s this profile piece from Robinson on Jaron Brown that just ran in the Chicago Sun-Times.

Big East Seedings

Here’s the match-ups for the Big East Tournament (it hasn’t been updated as yet). Syracuse beat UConn today (they rested Okafor, damn them), so Syracuse gets the #4 seed and the bye in the first round. Pitt will face the winner of the Rutgers-VaTech game on March 11. Syracuse will play the winner of Boston College-Georgetown. Assuming Pitt and Syracuse win, they will meet each other in the semis. It won’t be easy for Pitt to get to the Big East Championship game.

Pitt won. Pitt has their 3rd straight Big East regular season title. They beat down a weaker team after spotting them a 14 point lead with less than 8 minutes left in the first half. Here’s the box score and game log. Play along with game notes.

1:30 pm, settling into the chair, see that Dan Shulman and Len Elmore will be calling the game. No complaints. They’ll be doing the Big East Tournament as well, so it’s going to be familiar.

Game starts and the crowd seems a little subdued. Not full throated. Or is that the sound guys filtering them out? The game starts in what seems to be the usual Pitt fashion — sloppy. Missed shots, missed follows, turnovers. Pitt scores first at 17:45 when Troutman follows his own miss with a tip-in.

Odd, Pitt isn’t doing a good job on defensive rebounds. They aren’t boxing out, allowing ‘Nova to get second chances.

Page takes his first shot at 15:53, miss. He is looking to shoot from the outside. Allen Ray of ‘Nova gets the long rebound and scores on a drive to the basket. That’s what Page should be doing. Driving all the way to the hoop. He has decided to be a jump shooter, and that isn’t his style. It wasn’t how he played last year.

TV timeout at 14:32. Pitt is only down 4-2, but they have only taken 5 shots (1-5) while ‘Nova has 8 shots. Pitt has turned the ball over a couple of times and has allowed second shots by the Wildcats. On both ends Pitt looks out of sorts. Disjointed on both offense and defense.

After play resumes, Pitt turns the ball over. That’s 3 straight times. Unbelievable. Pitt is taking nothing but outside shots. They are letting themselves play a perimeter game and no one is getting after the boards. Suddenly it’s 11-2 Villanova and Pitt has to use a 30 second timeout at 12:30. And what happens? Page comes out and launches a 3 — miss.

Sloppy play by both sides ensues, leading to Torree Morris being fouled. He makes 1 of 2 FT. Pitt’s first point in over 6:30 minutes. And the scoring drought continues. Page misses an open 3 and even fails to complete a layup on a break. Pitt finds itself down 17-3, and as the graphic on TV points out — their biggest deficit of the year. Pitt calls another timeout at 8:32. The Pete is a tomb. Nova is playing a slow pace, but they are hustling to the basketball. They are being aggressive. They are making Pitt look slow.

Pitt actually gets a basket when Taft gets a lay-up at 7:21 to make it 17-5. Pitt’s first basket in over 10 minutes.

Taft scores again, getting the offensive rebound and laying it in. Nova misses again, and Taft lays another one in. It’s now 17-9. The crowd starts sounding alive, and Villanova takes a 30 second timeout at 5:45. Nova turns it over, but Troutman misses the lay-up — but Taft with a put-back dunk! The crowd noise really picks up.

How has ESPN SportsCenter not done a feature on Taft this year? It’s a cakewalk, set it to the “Shaft” theme music. Alternative lyrics with “TAFT!” If they miss this opportunity in the Big East Tournament, someone needs to be fired.

Page misses another jumper. His shot is just not there. He settled for the jumper, though, when he had a step on his defender to the basket. Frustrating to watch.

Villanova ends it’s scoring drought to make it 19-11 at 4:10, but Krauser answers with his first basket of the game.

TV timeout at 2:43. This game has taken an eerily familiar feel to early Big East conference games of Pitt. Where they would come out sluggish, out of sorts, not ready; then anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes into the game a light would go on and Pitt would start playing its game.

Out of the timeout and Page misses another wide open 3-point shot. At this rate, Nova might as well leave Page alone on the perimeter.

The half ends and Pitt is down by 5, 22-17. It was Pitt’s lowest scoring half of the season. Still considering Pitt was down by 14 more than halfway through the quarter, Pitt has a good shot. Page, Brown and Krauser shot a combined 1 for 14. As a team, Pitt shot 7 for 24.

Villanova gets the ball to start the second half and Allen Ray immediately nails a jumper. Damn.

Page misses an up and under shot. Then a minute later misses an open 3. He couldn’t hit water if he fell out of a boat today. Geez.

It’s Taft again on offense. He puts one back on a rebound then scores on a lay up, though he misses the free throw when fouled scoring. Pitt gets the rebound. Oh s**t, Troutman takes a 3. And he makes it! Tie game at 24. Wow.

Nova misses again. Pitt gets the ball and a TV timeout at 15:57. Pitt is on a 7-0 run.

Out of the timeout, Brown hits a runner. 26-24. Pitt has its first lead since being up 2-0.

Now Pitt is getting the rebounds and putting the pressure on Villanova. The Wildcats are wilting a little. You can see them start to press. They commit another turnover, and Troutman is all alone under the basket for an easy lay-in. ‘Nova has to take a 30 second timeout. It doesn’t help. Foye commits another turnover (he committed 7 in the game), and Allen Ray has to foul Troutman to prevent the breakaway lay-up. Troutman nails both free throws and Pitt is now up 30-24. Less than a minute later Brown nails a huge,open 3. Pitt has a 33-24 lead. A 16-0 run. Villanova takes another 30 second timeout.

Then confusion. The refs give Page a technical, but nobody knows why (apparently he got it for jawing or taunting Allen Ray of Villanova). Allen Ray sinks both free throws then puts down a jumper to make it a 33-28 game. This is part of Villanova’s 13-4 run to tie the game at 37, with 8:27 left. Ray scored 10 of the 13 points for Villanova.

The Pete got very quiet during that run. Pitt is starting to look shaky again. In that run, Krauser got called for a pushing off foul with the ball. Elmore points out that he uses his elbow to try and shove the guy out of the way. I now get why he doesn’t get more blocking calls when he drives. He’s always pushing, shoving into the defender.

Taft gets fouled and makes 1-2 free throws to give Pitt a 38-37 lead with 7:45 left. McCarroll misses a 3, then Page makes a steal on Villanova at their end. The ball heads out of bounds and a Nova player tries to get it. The ball is stopped on the line and the ref blows the whistle saying it’s out of bounds, Pitt ball. This is right in front of Nova coach Jay Wright who starts screaming and is immediately given a technical. Krauser drops both free throws, and on the ensuing possession is fouled. This sends Pitt to the double bonus and Krauser makes the next pair.

Now it is 42-37 Pitt. The Pete starts to roar again. Villanova goes ice cold, impatience and sloppiness. Pitt goes up 51-37. A 14-0 run where Pitt only had 6 points on baskets, and 8 from free throws. Nova ended the drought at 1:38 with a 3 but it was too late. Pitt keeps making foul shots down the stretch. With less than a minute left, Brown and Page — the seniors — come out to a standing ovation for each. Then on the next stoppage Troutman and Taft. After that, Krauser.

There was a shot of Morris — the 3rd senior — on the bench in his warm-up suit — he hadn’t been in except for 2 minutes in the first half. Dixon apparently asked if he wanted in for the last minute, but he declined.

Final score, Pitt 59-45

The game was all about the inside play of Taft and Troutman for the second straight game. Taft was the player of the game with a double-double — 16 points and 11 rebounds. He was 7-10 shooting. His only negative was 2-6 from the free throw line.

Troutman went for 17 points (6-12 shooting) and 7 rebounds. He also had 4 steals.

Krauser had 11 points but only 2 came from the field (1-9). The other 9 came on free throws. Brown had 7 points on 2-5 shooting and 2-2 free throws.

Page, though, was hideous once more. 0-8 shooting, including 0-5 from 3-point. He got 5 points on 5-6 from the free throw line. I just do not understand why he refuses to drive to the basket. He is so powerful off the dribble, but keeps pulling up, or waiting to take an open look. It isn’t working.

It’s not a struggle for me; I’m still shooting the ball. It’s difficult sometimes when you’re playing hard
defense; you get tired when you switch to offense. All I care about is that we win. If I shoot badly and we
still win, I’ll shoot 0-8 every night.

No matter how much he protests Pitt needs him to be a reliable scorer.

During the telecast, they kept flashing to the “thousands” of balloons in the nets that they were going to drop if Pitt won. It was amusing in a way because the first time they showed them, Pitt was down big, so the comments were almost sarcastic, then it changed to an “if,” then “maybe,” and finally inevitability.